Life Advice

/

Health

Teen girl fears legitimacy of cousin-loving

By Amy Dickinson, Tribune Content Agency on

Dear Amy: I am a 16-year-old girl in high school. I met a guy through a church event six months ago. We started talking, and then a month later he came to my house to hang out during the weekend.

His uncle was with him when he came over, and met my mom.

I started dating the guy, and my mom started dating my boyfriend's uncle!

Now my mom is going to marry his uncle, a person she's only known for four months.

I plan on being with my boyfriend and marrying him; I truly love him.

Since my mom is marrying his uncle that would make my boyfriend and me cousins by marriage.

 

It is not legal where I live to marry my cousin.

What should I do?

-- Confused Almost-Cousin

Dear Confused: Let's clear this up: First of all, even though (according to a report from the Journal of Genetic Counseling) there is an extremely small genetic risk to marrying a biological cousin, various states still have somewhat antiquated laws on the books discouraging unions between first cousins. There is still something of a taboo regarding marrying cousins.

...continued

swipe to next page

 

 

Comics

Gary Markstein Wallace The Brave A.F. Branco Al Goodwyn Bizarro Christopher Weyant